fountain pen

by Tony Thomas This is my second review of the J. Herbin 1670 collection of inks.  Up next is Rouge Hematite. For those who missed the last installment: "The 1670 Collection celebrates the rich life and adventures of J. Herbin, an enterprising French sailor of the mid-17th century. He made a number of voyages to India, collecting ingredients and formulas for his sealing wax and inks. He began making pen inks in his Paris workshop beginning in 1700 with the ' Ink of Ships ' and the ' Jewel of Inks .' Today, Herbin inks are widely used and internationally renown." J. Herbin Rouge Hematite is a beautiful, rich, shade of red.  It is saturated, but not nearly as dense as the Emerald of Chivor ink that I reviewed previously.  Again, I used my Conklin Duragraph with a 1.1 stub for the test.  The flow is excellent and the dry time is reasonable on Rhodia the 80gsm paper that I used.  I did not notice any significant shading with this ink.  It was a pleasure to writ...

by Tony Thomas I received a nice box from Exaclair, the U. S. distributor for J. Herbin containing the four 1670 Anniversary Edition inks. For those of you who have been out of touch for a while, J. Herbin 1670 is one of the most sought after ink collections currently available. For a bit of background, from the J. Herbin website: "The 1670 Collection celebrates the rich life and adventures of J. Herbin, an enterprising French sailor of the mid-17th century. He made a number of voyages to India, collecting ingredients and formulas for his sealing wax and inks. He began making pen inks in his Paris workshop beginning in 1700 with the ' Ink of Ships ' and the ' Jewel of Inks .' Today, Herbin inks are widely used and internationally renown." When I opened each individual box, I was quite impressed with the bottles and the elegant metallic cord and wax seal attached to each one -- an extremely creative and elegant design. At a bit over $25 a bottle retail for 50 m...